The Midland Legacy Rebels will venture away from home to take on the Franklin Cougars at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams might be coming in a bit winded given these two teams combined for 956 yards in their previous games.
Midland Legacy is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat Odessa 75-22. The result was nothing new for the Rebels, who have now won three games by 20 points or more so far this season.
Aiden Serrano continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, picking up 80 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Midland Legacy is 3-1 when Serrano posts two or more receiving touchdowns, but 2-4 otherwise. Mackenzie Rogers was in the mix too, providing Midland Legacy with two touchdowns.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Franklin, who bounced back after a loss on the road back in October. They strolled past Pebble Hills with points to spare on Thursday, taking the game 49-35.
It was another big night for Ernie Powers, who rushed for 408 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 11.0 yards per carry. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 2.1 rushing touchdowns per game. Noah Friesen was another key player, rushing for 51 yards and a touchdown.
Franklin's defensive line stepped up as well, laying out Joe Fernandez. five times. In that department, Dylan Contreras was the leader with three sacks. He also set a new season high mark in total tackles with seven.
Franklin was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 489 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since the start of last season.
Franklin is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 6-4 record this season. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 35.5 points per game. As for Midland Legacy, the victory (which was their third in a row) raised their record to 5-5.
Thursday's matchup might be decided in the on the ground. Midland Legacy has been unstoppable on the ground this season, having averaged 209.1 rushing yards per game. However, it's not like Franklin struggles in that department as they've been averaging 321.2. It's looking like Thursday's contest might have some serious battles in the trenches.
Everything went Midland Legacy's way against Franklin in their previous meeting back in November of 2022, as Midland Legacy made off with a 46-21 win. In that game, Midland Legacy amassed a halftime lead of 32-7, an impressive feat they'll look to repeat on Thursday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
